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DO CHILDHOOD CHEST INFECTIONS RAISE THE RISK OF ASTHMA?

Having a chest infection as a child raises a person's risk of asthma by up to four times, research suggested in September 2017.

Suffering from a lower-respiratory tract infection, such as bronchitis or pneumonia, before the age of five increases an individual's likelihood of developing the lung condition by between two and four times, a study found.

An upper-respiratory tract infection, including a cold or tonsillitis, raises the risk by 1.5 times.

Study author Dr Evelien van Meel from the Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands, said: 'These findings support the hypothesis that early-life respiratory tract infections may influence the development of respiratory illnesses in the longer term.

'In particular, lower-respiratory tract infections in early life seem to have the greatest adverse effect on lung function and the risk of asthma.'

The researchers analysed 154,492 European children born between 1989 and 2013.

Children were included in the study if respiratory-tract infection information was available from when they were aged between six months and five years old.

Follow-up periods ranged from four to 15 years.

Lung function was assessed by measuring the amount of air that the study's participants could forcibly exhale after maximum inhalation and how much they could breathe out in the first second.

HRT replaces hormones lost during the menopause, with some women claiming it eases their symptoms.

The therapy's hormonal effects have previously been linked to asthma.

Perhaps surprisingly, overweight women who do not smoke and have had, or are having, HRT are less likely to develop the inflammatory condition.

The researchers note the explanation for this is likely too complicated to be down to a single reason.

Hormonal oral contraceptives were not found to be associated with asthma in the study review.

Speaking of the findings, Dr Erika Kennington, head of research at Asthma UK, said much more research is needed.

She added: 'The best way for women to avoid hormones affecting them is to manage their asthma well, by taking their medication exactly as prescribed, using their written asthma action plan and correctly using their inhaler.'

How the research was carried out

Some 64 studies investigating how asthma and allergies relate to puberty, menstruation, menopause, hormonal contraceptives and HRT were included in the review.

The studies, which were published between January 1990 and November 2015, had a total of 554,293 participants.

The findings were published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.

Irregular menstruation increases the risk of asthma symptoms, such as breathlessness (stock)

Relying on just one type of inhaler may reduce asthmatic women's fertility

This comes after research released yesterday suggests women with asthma who use only short-term reliever inhalers, which are often blue, are 30 per cent more likely to suffer from infertility.

Whereas female sufferers who take preventer inhalers, which contain steroids, have the same pregnancy prospects as non-asthma patients, a study found.

Relying just on relievers, which open up the airways, also causes women to take 20 per cent longer, on average, to become pregnant, the research adds.

Infertility was defined as taking more than a year to conceive despite having regular, unprotected sex.

Lead author Dr Luke Grzeskowiak from the University of Adelaide, said: 'Five-to-10 per cent of all women around the world have asthma and it is one of the most common chronic medical conditions in women of reproductive age.

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